Ryan Reynolds is the A-list narrator of the big-hearted, G-rated nature documentary "The Whale," a film that he also executive-produced with his then-wife, Scarlett Johannsson. But the real star of the show is a killer whale named Luna.

Luna is the orphaned 2-year-old orca who became something of a Canadian sensation in 2001 when, after becoming separated from his pod, he turned up alone in western Canada's Nootka Sound. He was old enough to fend for himself as far as food went. But whales are remarkably social creatures, Reynolds tells us, and the one thing Luna needed -- companionship -- was nowhere to be found.

So he decided to make friends.

He would approach the fishing boasts and pleasure crafts of Nootka sound and use floats, or even sticks dredged up from the sea floor, to play catch with the boats' passengers. He would surface close enough to let people stare him in the eye. He would let them pet him. Sometimes, he would insist they pet him.

But what most saw as entirely charming behavior others saw as a nuisance. After all, a playful whale has a way of unwittingly damaging rudders and outriggers and outboard motors and such. Worse, wildlife officials saw Luna's behavior as potentially dangerous, for the people he encountered -- and for the whale himself.

That's why, after all, there are laws against humans disturbing a wild marine mammal. It's also why Canadian officials began to enforce it: in an effort to keep Luna from getting too comfortable around humans and in the hopes of keeping him "wild" enough to one day return to his pod. So no one was allowed to touch Luna. No one was allowed to stop their boat and watch Luna. No one was even allowed to make eye contact with Luna. Law-breakers faced a possible $100,000 fine.

But what that ended up creating was a whale who was increasingly desperate for attention. What resulted would be a years-long tug-of-war between government officials who insisted they had Luna's best interests at heart, and others who saw ignoring the stranded whale as cruel.

"The Whale" -- which opens for an extended run today (Jan. 3) at the Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Arts Center -- is a congenial enough film but also a touch slow-starting as Reynolds and company pad it with gentle but repetitive musings about such matters as the concept of friendship among animals. Once it hits its stride, however, and starts getting into the meat of Luna's story, it's interesting and moving stuff.

It's easy to see why people cared so deeply for the playful, rascally Luna, described as "Mowgli the Jungle Boy of whales." He's that lovable, and the film -- though sentimental -- is often touching.

At the risk of playing spoiler, parents of sensitive children should be warned: Luna's story doesn't have a necessarily happy ending. It's not exactly a "Circle of Life" situation (although Reynolds tries to attach similar meaning to it), but it's not "Free Willy," either.

Those who came into contact with Luna over the course of his time in Nootka Sound characterize it as a profound, life-changing experience for them. The exact meaning of it, however, varies for each one, according to one person interviewed for "The Whale."

And perhaps that's the biggest failure of the film. Though Reynolds and company steep Luna's story in a sense of wonder and awe in the natural world, they don't seem to have forged any meaningful lessons for their audience to take away from the theater. Or if they have, they don't offer them up for consideration, which ends up weighing down the otherwise likeable "The Whale."

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THE WHALE2.5 stars, out of 4

Snapshot: A documentary about a 2-year-old killer whale who, separated from his pod in Canada's Nootka Sound, decided to make friends with humans, creating a tug-of-war between wildlife officials who thought he should be left alone and well-meaning animal-lovers who couldn't resist.

What works: It's a big-hearted movie about an amazing story.

What doesn't: It's overly sentimental at times and fails in its efforts to elicit resonant lessons from the story.